Award winning duet of Ezekiel Drews & Joseph Mauro
Welcome Ezekiel and Joseph, we are very excited to have you today with us to discuss about your work.
Who are Ezekiel Drews and Joseph Mauro and how did the passion for filmmaking begin?
Ezekiel : I’m just a passionate acting nerd who fell in love with film. For me, it started with seeing “Toy Story” at the age of 9 years old. I came home from the theater and wrote the first 8 pages of Toy Story from memory. My parents immediately got me involved with community theatre, and my love of acting only grew from there. As I grew up, I found the time to work in theatre was less available, but getting involved in short films and feature films allowed me to “get my fix” until Lucid Films was born.
Joseph : I’m just a chronic hobbyist, I’ve started a lot of random hobbies such as blacksmithing, coding video games, beer brewing, sports, and finally acting and filmmaking. This one began with my love for film. I love creating, and this is an art form where we can tell a compelling story while also loving the process of learning new things. So naturally I jumped deep into it with learning cinematography, set design, lighting, editing, sound design and a lot more technical things while Ezekiel handled the people / business side.
Can you tell us about your previous work?
E: This is actually our first foray as filmmakers. I’d written some short “scripts” (if you can call them that) in college, but they were for some youth ministry videos and were absolute cheesy hot garbage that should never have seen the light of day.
J: As Ezekiel said, this is our first film! It started as a short story that bloomed into a feature film. We both have acted in other projects and that's really what led to us making this film. We met on a film set and were sick of things not getting done, so we took matters into our own hands.
CONVERSATION ABOUT: HAPPY BIRTHDAY
"Happy Birthday" delves into themes of loss and repetition. Can you share any personal experiences or external influences that inspired the storyline?
E: I’m a huge zombie horror movie fan, and I’ve often thought about how often the themes of survivors slowly losing their humanity come into play, but those who try to maintain some semblance of “normalcy” put themselves into a routine that keeps them sane. However, the inspiration for this film came directly from within the first two minutes of the Netflix Resident Evil series. As I was writing the screenplay for “Happy Birthday”, I remembered my own losses—my parents both slowly passing away from cancers over 10 years ago, and my grandfather who passed away from complications with COVID. Many people have experienced these types of losses, or are just trying to get by from day to day with routines they’ve designed from themselves to keep the trauma and the pain at bay. Delaying confrontation with these issues means that at some point the pot boils over and everyone surrounding them gets caught in the mess.
J: This film was written solely by Ezekiel, I’ll leave this answer to him.
"Happy Birthday" blends elements of drama and psychological thriller. How did you navigate the balance between these genres to create a cohesive narrative?
E: I take the blame for that one because, technically speaking, I originally wrote the film as a 27 page short film that took place 90% in the remote cabin, and 10% between a newscaster and a small birthday party. After rereading the script, and brainstorming for a couple weeks, I ended up rewriting part of the existing script and added on 40 pages. Then after casting the film, I added 5 more pages, and then another 5 to flesh out more characters. Strictly speaking, I’m actually amazed the film’s narrative not only came out cohesive, but that it’s been so well praised by critics and test audiences. I feel that the story between John and Sam is a journey of survivors relating through their own personal failures in order to heal and move on.
The remote cabin setting plays a crucial role in shaping the atmosphere of the film. How did you utilize the location to enhance the film's mood and tone?
J: The remote Cabin was critical for us. We needed a place that really captured the feeling of isolation. We went on a trip up to the cabin before filming, and we immediately knew that it was the perfect representation for giving the audience the uneasy feeling of being away from any form of society all on your own. We added the wide drone shots to really emphasize the loneliness and even had more shots planned for the woods that ended up getting cut in the final edit for pacing.
Could you discuss any creative differences or challenges you and Ezekiel faced while co-directing "Happy Birthday," and how did you resolve them?
J: We ultimately didn’t have very many creative differences when filming. I think we both did a very good job of understanding each of our strengths and weaknesses and relying on one another when we felt we needed additional input. Sometimes we each would give our opinion and sometimes it would fall back to the script that Ezekiel wrote, and other times we would veer toward changes I thought were necessary just to be able to make the film flow better or just to be able to get the film complete.
As emerging filmmakers, what do you hope audiences will take away from "Happy Birthday," and how does that influence your approach to storytelling moving forward?
E: Letting old scars dictate the way you live your life will keep you from moving on to whatever purpose you’re meant for. Also, no one should blindly trust a government that says they always have our best interests at heart. Finally, that family should always be prioritized before what you do for work—jobs change or disappear, don’t let that happen to your family.
In future projects, do you plan to explore similar genre intersections, or are there other genres you're eager to explore as a director?
E: I’m reminded of the superhero movie “Hancock” which was advertised as a comedy, and slapped me in the face as a full fledged drama in the second half. Those kinds of mixed genres are always exciting to pull a fast one on audiences (in a good way), but the execution of the intersection needs to make sense. Otherwise, I’d love to do a Marvel superhero flick, or work on an experimental film where there’s little to no dialogue focused on visual storytelling.
J: I think for future films I would love to explore diving deep into full horror, or more psychological thriller / mystery. This film only scratched the surface of what I would want to do with making an audience feel uneasy. I really want to lean into creating red herrings, bread crumbs, and plot twists within a film that make watching the same film a second time a completely different experience.
Can you tease any upcoming projects or themes you're excited to explore in your future works?
E: I’m actually very interested in writing a film noir piece. It seems that Hollywood is so focused on the next big blockbuster, that they’ve forgotten that other types of storytelling exist. Film used to be about telling memorable stories that provoked thought and philosophy, and that’s what my hope is to revitalize, starting with the indie film scene.
J: I think we might work on a few short films next, and maybe blend some genres together, maybe we combine that film noir piece with some horror elements…
E: I like that…”Horror Noir”….
This marks the conclusion of the interview featuring our esteemed artist, Ezekiel and Joseph. Our community is growing steadily, with a continuous influx of skilled filmmakers and screenwriters joining us. Explore our other interviews, and consider scheduling one for yourself to showcase your creative endeavors.
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